The Poem Workshop

What once was meant to be a statement—
a dripping dagger held in the fist
of a shuddering heart—is now just a bruise

At gate C22 in the Portland airport
a man in a broad-band leather hat kissed
a woman arriving from Orange County.
They kissed and kissed and kissed. Long after
the other passengers clicked the handles of their carry-ons
and wheeled briskly toward short-term parking,
the couple stood there, arms wrapped around each other
like he’d just staggered off the boat at Ellis Island,
like she’d been released at last from ICU, snapped
out of a coma, survived bone cancer, made it down
from Annapurna in only the clothes she was wearing.

http://bigthink.com/robertpinsky2/re-when-does-the-specific-become-universal

After watching the video, write a poem about a specific experience or object that also has a universal meaning. Attempt to use the object or experience as a “doorway” to the universal. Make sure to choose something so natural and remarkable to you that writing about it is natural.

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Spend some time leafing through the newspaper and write a poem based on a news story. It can be from a headline or the story itself.